By Penelope A. Domogo, MD
For the major part of March, this column dwelt on women because March is women’s month. This month of April, we’ll now talk about men. April is not Men’s Month but we need to balance our information as men constitute the other half of humanity, figuratively and literally speaking. Also, my son and one of my grandsons are born in April and I take a lot of inspiration and insight from my children and grandchildren. Happy Birthday, Bogs and Gilan!
The ratio of males and females in any given human population living in normal circumstances is almost 1:1. Wikipedia says there are 101 males to 100 females worldwide. What is a difference of one among friends? It will matter in elections, but let us not split hairs in this case. Me thinks, therefore, that nature favors monogamy – one is to one.
It occurred to me that it is better if a man writes about his kapwa men. On second thought, I think there is no problem with me writing about men because if you noticed, most of newspaper columnists, including the ones in this paper, are male, so they have a lot of space J. A lot of space to talk about themselves. For those who don’t know yet, I am female, although some people think the name “Penelope” is a man’s name so I have been addressed as “Mr.” in some correspondences. J
Now to our topic – hormones and men. As a review, let us see how a boy or a girl comes to be. Being a male and female is governed in nature by our genes, designed by a loving Supreme Being and not an accident of nature. If XX chromosomes unite, a baby girl is produced. If XY chromosomes unite, a baby boy is produced. The Y chromosome comes only from men, not women.Women’s chromosome only contain XX. The Y chromosome will direct the development of the fetus towards being a biological male. I mean as the male fetus grows within the womb, he will develop male sex organs. These sex organs will later on produce the necessary hormones that will determine the further development of the person to adolescence and throughout his/her lifetime as a male or as a female.
In men, the testes is the main organ that produces the male hormones, medically called androgens. There is more than one so-called “sex hormone” but we need not mention nor memorize all so we’ll just refer to the most dominant male hormone, testosterone. The term “sex hormone” and “sex organ” are misnomers because, as we will discuss later, these hormones and organs don’t only determine the sex of an individual, nor are they only for reproduction or libido nor are they the only factors affecting such. So from on, I will just refer to “testosterone” as the male hormone and “estrogen” as the female hormone.
Surprisingly, the testis does not only produce testosterone, it also produces a little amount of estrogen. And vice versa, the ovaries produce estrogen predominantly but also produces testosterone! The adrenal glands located near the kidneys also produce some amount of these two hormones so even if the male is castrated or the ovaries of a woman is removed, there are still hormones produced.
What’s does testosterone do? What science had discovered so far is that it plays a key role in the development of primary male reproductive organs – the testis and prostate. Later on, testosterone influences the maturation of the penis and normal sperm development. It also is important for the development of secondary male sexual characteristics such as growth of Adam’s apple, deepening of voice, broadening of shoulders, adult body odor and increased body hair. Thus men generally grow a beard, sideburns and more axillary and other body hair than women. Testosterone also influences linear growth, increases bone mass and density, muscle mass and strength. Thus we read about some athletes abusing androgens to improve their performance. Yup, these are available as regulated drugs just as estrogen is available as oral contraceptive pills.
We see with our eyes the result of testosterone – men are generally taller, have bigger bones and muscles. Thus they are generally heavier than women of the same height and physically stronger. Indigenous societies know that men are physically stronger than women, thus they have evolved roles of men and women around these biological differences. Example is that men are expected to carry heavier loads than women and perform tasks like house construction which call for stronger muscles. These differentiation of roles does not mean that Igorot society is not gender sensitive. In fact, it is one of the most gender sensitive societies I could think of because we are sensitive to the natural differences of men and women and we act accordingly. Igorot women are powerful and independent and our Igorot men care about us, women, as seen from how they care for pregnant and newly-delivered women and the elderly. That is, in the truly indigenous Igorot men.***
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“Strengthen and build up your brothers.” Luke 22:32
